Pre-marketing process with Italian and foreign institutional investors
Listing expected by May on Euronext Growth Milan with a placement consortium consisting of Intesa Sanpaolo as Sole Global Coordinator, Joint Bookrunner and Specialist and Alantra as Joint Bookrunner and Euronext Growth Advisor

Naples, 15 April 2024 – NextGeo (“the Company”), a leading international company in the field of marine geosciences and offshore construction support services mainly in the energy sector, with a focus on renewable energies, following the resolution – adopted by the Company’s Assembly on March 29th, 2024 – approving the project for the admission to the listing of ordinary shares of Next Geo on the multilateral trading system Euronext Growth Milan, organized and managed by Borsa Italiana S.p.A. and dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises with high growth potential (“EGM“), through a fully capital increase offer of approximately € 50 million, it communicates having signed on April 12, 2024, a cornerstone investment agreement with Smart Capital S.p.A. (“Smart Capital“) and VSL Club S.p.A. (“VSL Club“) preparatory to the listing on EGM.

In this agreement, Smart Capital and VSL Club, acting as Cornerstone Investors for the IPO on EGM, have committed – through a newly established company in which they are shareholders and subject to certain suspensive conditions – to subscribe, within the broader capital increase approved by the assembly on March 29th, 2024, up to a total amount of € 15 million (with a minimum subscription of € 10 million).

The pre-money Equity Value of the Company for the investment will be € 250 million. This investment, characterized among other things by the presence of 12-month lock-up commitments on the part of the investors and the appointment of an independent board member already identified in the person of Andrea Costantini (President and Managing Partner of Smart Capital and Executive Vice President of Agrati Group), expresses their willingness to support the Company over time in the implementation of an ambitious growth plan, both organically and through targeted acquisition operations, which could lead in the future, if the conditions are met, to a translisting on the Euronext Milan Market.

Smart Capital is a permanent capital holding company specialized in Private Equity and Private Investments in Public Equity; VSL is a holding company engaged in investment and advisory activities exclusively in the transportation, maritime services, and logistics sector, with a long-only permanent capital perspective.

Attilio Ievoli, President of NextGeo and CEO of Marnavi Group: “We are delighted to have reached this agreement, which encourages the participation of important holding companies to support NextGeo’s development project. The entry of Smart Capital and VSL Club, the latter specialising precisely in investment operations in the maritime logistics sector, reinforces the decision to take this significant step towards listing on the stock exchange, confirming NextGeo’s capabilities and potential in its reference sector“.

Giovanni Ranieri, CEO of NextGeo, commented: “We are now moving into the heart of the listing process, a fundamental step that opens up important prospects for the future, and knowing that we can count on the support and experience of prestigious Cornerstone Investors further proves the growth strategy we want to outline, both internally and externally, which will allow us to consolidate NextGeo’s national and international leadership in the marine geoscience and offshore construction support services sector, with a particular focus on renewable energy“.

Andrea Costantini and Andrea Faraggiana, Co-Managing Partner of Smart Capital, commented as follows: “We are extremely pleased to announce this important agreement regarding the investment in the capital of Next Geosolutions alongside the Ievoli family’s Marnavi with Attilio Ievoli, Giovanni Ranieri and Giuseppe Maffia. We believe that Next Gesolutions is an Italian company with unique characteristics and absolute excellence, also thanks to a first-class management team. Next Geosolutions now enjoys a distinctive positioning both nationally and internationally that will enable it, over the next few years, to ride the impetuous growth trend of its reference market driven also by the pipeline of offshore wind farm installations.”

VSL Club partners Fabrizio Vettosi, Giorgio Drago and Ciro Russo added: “We are very excited to support Next Geosolutions in its ambitious strategic path. We know the Ievoli Family and the Management of Next Geosolutions very well and we appreciate their strategic vision and capabilities that fit perfectly into our mission, namely the enhancement of Italian excellence in the field of Maritime Logistics.”

Next Geosolutions (NextGeo) is a leading international company in marine geosciences and offshore infrastructure construction support in the energy sector, with a particular focus on renewable energy. NextGeo closed 2023 with strong growth results that reflect the company’s growing success in its industry. The value of production rose 121% to € 148.6 million thanks to effective commercial and business strategies that facilitated winning more and larger contracts. EBITDA stood at € 40.5 million, up 281% year-on-year with an EBITDA Margin of 27%, and EBIT more than quadrupled to € 35.3 million with an EBIT Margin of 24%. Net profit almost quadrupled to € 29.2 million.

As at February 28th 2024, the Backlog (understood as the Group’s order book, including only the contractual value of projects already secured by the Group) amounted to approximately € 325 million, of which € 204 million refers to contracts scheduled for execution during 2024.

ABOUT NEXTGEO
Next Geosolutions (NextGeo) is a leading international contractor providing marine geoscience survey services and offshore construction support services to the energy sector, with a special focus on offshore renewables. Established at the end of 2014 and part of the Marnavi group – the largest Italian shipowner operating globally in the offshore sector – NextGeo offers turnkey survey solutions and support services for the design, engineering and construction of offshore infrastructures, with high quality standards, thanks to a solid know-how in the offshore sector, consolidated over a few decades. With a large fleet of latest generation DP2 class vessels and a multi-ethnic team of over 300 qualified and experienced professionals, NextGeo guarantees a wide range of services ranging from specialized services in the field of marine geophysics and geotechnics, to environmental and archaeological investigations up to the identification and removal of UneXploded Ordnances (UXO) as well as offshore construction support services. NextGeo closed FY 2023 with a production value of €148.6 million and a net profit of €29.2 million.

CONTACTS
INSTITUTIONAL PRESS OFFICE
Angelo Brunello – angelo.brunello@cdr-communication.it
Ph. +39 329 211 7752
Stefania Trevisol – stefania.trevisol@cdr-communication.it
Ph. +39 347 878 2490